sauce
Americannoun
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any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
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stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
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something that adds piquance or zest.
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Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
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Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
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Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
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to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
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to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
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to give piquance or zest to.
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to make agreeable or less harsh.
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Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
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any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
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anything that adds piquancy
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stewed fruit
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dialect vegetables eaten with meat
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informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
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to prepare (food) with sauce
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to add zest to
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to make agreeable or less severe
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informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have saucedperfect
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has saucedperfect 3rd person singular
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is saucingprogressive 3rd person singular
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are saucingprogressive
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have been saucingperfect progressive
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saucingparticiple
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has been saucingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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saucessingular 3rd person
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am saucingprogressive 1st person singular
Past
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had saucedperfect
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was saucingprogressive singular
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had been saucingperfect progressive
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saucedparticiple
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saucedsimple
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were saucingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of sauce
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; see also salt 1
Explanation
A sauce is a nearly-liquid or soft topping or condiment for food. You might prefer your spaghetti with tomato sauce and your broccoli with cheese sauce. The cuisine of every country and region has its own sauces, from chutney served with Indian dosas to Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict and caramel sauce dolloped on sticky toffee pudding. You can even use sauce as a fancy verb: "Shall I sauce the beef?" Figuratively, to sauce someone is to speak in an impudent or cheeky way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The pommes dauphine — crispy, cheesy potato puffs paired with a rich Gruyère dipping sauce — were equally memorable.
From Salon • Jun. 11, 2026
Management highlighted consumption growth across the portfolio and continued strength from Rao’s pasta sauce, which surpassed $1 billion in trailing 12-month sales.
From Barron's • Jun. 7, 2026
Patrizia’s of Williamsburg, a family-style Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, has a special called Jalen Brunson Rigatoni—pasta dyed with organic blueberry extract and an orange-colored cream sauce.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026
Inspired by my favorite slice in New York City, I love making a tri-dye pizza complete with stripes of vodka sauce, margherita sauce and basil pesto.
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026
A warm breeze floats in through the open truck window, carrying with it the scent of fresh bread, fire-roasted tomatoes, and Lady Rizzo’s famous Parmesan-basil-garlic sauce, and my stomach rumbles.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
